This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Steve Mirsky.On October 7, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of the gene-editing tool called CRISPR.Last April，I spoke with Doudna at an event in Washington, D.C.A few months ago, I was at a talk about wine, and CRISPR came up. And it was it was an appropriate thing to bring up.What is it like to be in this field right now, where everyone is talking about the work that you do and its implications?Well, I have to say it’s very exciting.And as a scientist, it’s wonderful to see all the creative work that’s going on with gene editing.It’s just a fascinating opportunity to see the innovation that people come up with when they have a tool that’s so broadly useful across biology.You do a million interviews, and you make a lot of public talks.What do people not talk to you about that you would love to talk about regarding CRISPR?Well, I think a lot of the discussion around CRISPR right now focuses on biomedical applications, which clearly are very exciting.I think something that I don’t hear as much―although I’m happy to hear that you had this conversation at a wine event―are the opportunities in agriculture.I think they’re going to be huge.
